Tracy McGrady, who had microfracture surgery on his left knee in February, recently returned to action but was frustrated with his playing time. He eventually took an indefinite leave and he and the team will seek a trade. Read here. And here.
A professional sports player earnings $20 million a year openly demanding for trade? Geez, I hate seeing that. It's really nasty. It happens every now and then and I really hate such thing.
However, as critical as I have been on players playing solely for money, I won't put all the blame on T-Mac.
For sure, McGrady has his own agenda. First, he did not inform the team before his decision to undergo the microfracture sugery. Back in February, he knew that the Rockets are going nowhere and his knee is not healed, so he decided to have the surgery, which normally takes 6 to 12 months to heal (See Jason Kidd, Kenyon Martin, Amare Stoudemire), while some never heal (see Penny Hardaway, Chris Webber, Allan Houston). The motive is clear: abandon the team, scratch the season (last year in his contract) and heal, so that he can be back in "full health" (he hoped) this season, last year in his fatty contract, and he can "maximize" (he hoped) his value in the 2010 free agent market.
Flash forward to present, T-Mac thinks he is ready, and would like to have enough playing time to showcase, so that other teams would know how good he is. So he was frustrated with his playing time, a meager 8 minutes a game.
Selfish? Calculating? You bet.
Allegedly, he's far from ready. As Rick Adelman said, "He's coming back from major surgery, he's rehabilitating and who knows when he's going to get there. Right now, he wasn't there." He went on, "I don't think the explosiveness was there. He didn't get to the basket like he used to, he didn't have that first step where he could blow by people."
Should we blame T-Mac? Hell, yeah.
But, oops! This is where the Rockets and Adelman went wrong.
His explosiveness is not there? He lost his first step? I mean, his explosiveness has been LONG GONE. He could no longer blow by people ever since he had that chronic back spasm. He had been relying on his long range jumper ever since he came to Houston. Yes, even before Rick Adelman replacing Jeff Van Gundy as the head coach of the Rockets. Now, Rick Adelman, you are saying that he is not as explosive as before? C'mon, give me a break. 10 months after a microfracture surgery, of course he would be rusty. Nobody can be 100% ready immediately returning from such a major knee surgery. As young as Stoudemire, he was rusty when he came back from microfracture surgery and needed to take more rest.
So Adelman, or the team, id you thinks he is far from ready, why would you want to put him on the floor in the first place? Knowing the risk of re-injuring his surgically repaired knee again, why did you still play him? Either you think he has a shot to play, or you just don't care about whether he will be injured again.
And, why only 8 minutes a game? If you think he is not ready, then why didn't you shut him off completely? Otherwise, if you think he could somehow play, why not let him play more, somewhere close to 20 MPG? What kind of progress did you expect to see in 8 minutes? Alas, he has not yet been warmed up in 8 minutes! To say T-Mac is rusty in 8 minutes of playing time is absolutely insane. OK, you may say that the coach should have seen enough during practice. They knew he was not yet ready. So it doesn't matter whether they played him 8 minutes or not. Again, if that is that case, why did you play him in the first place? I really couldn't comprehend.
Rick Adelman is simply playing the media card. He is trying to portrait T-Mac as a stubborn star player who whines about playing time without fully assessing his own condition. Adelman may be right, but I really could not tell based on the 8 minutes T-Mac played each game. I can tell he is rusty. But how bad he is? I can't tell. How far is he from ready? Can't tell either. Nobody can be rust-free playing 8 minutes a game, in particular someone who had been a starter in the past 9 or 10 years. We "know" T-Mac is not ready based on what Adelman said. To me, there is no hard evidence.
To say Rick Adelman has no personal agenda is a joke. His team overperformed this season. They are 19-13, #7 in the competitive Western Conference as of 29 December 2009. They simply play hard and win games with heart. They beat elite teams by starting a 6'6" Chuck Hayes at center. Man, I really appreciate that. I admire their bravery and confidence. I love their competitive mindset. They are textbook example of teamwork and team spirit. It is the reason why Rick Adelman does not want T-Mac to come back. Adelman knew the return of T-Mac would hurt the surreal team chemistry, and given his ball hogging style and his rustiness, that would hurt the game flow too. The Rockets would not be the same with T-Mac. That, I agree.
But come to think of the big picture. Frankly, where would this year's Rockets go? Luckily they would make the playoffs (if they could manage to continue overpeforming the entire season, which is a big if). But then? The NBA ain't no NCAA Tournament. You hardly see any genuine Cinderella story. As amazing as the 1994 Nuggets or the 2007 Warriors, they did not survive past first round. Look at the West, Lakers and Nuggets just picked up where they left last season, the Mavericks and the Suns regaining their elite status, and the Spurs are just warming up. How could the Rockets beat any of them in a 7-game series? Plus, OKC, currently #9 in the West, has a shot to make the playoffs too. To me, I think OKC has a better chance to make the playoffs than the Rockets.
Playing T-Mac is too risky for Adelman's job. They would be worse than now, and people would blame the coach by bringing back T-Mac too soon. So in order to save his job, Rick Adelman decided to make a huge scheme by playing T-Mac little minutes, showing how rusty he is, and then alienating from him, putting all the blame on him.
Selfish? For sure. You may say he is sacrificing T-Mac for a bigger good. He puts team success before a player's personal interest. But to me, those are all excuses. He is just trying to save his job.
Make no mistake, I am not saying that the Rockets should play T-Mac big minutes. The problem is, I do not have enough information to have a conclusion. The thing I have the most problem, is that the team should not have played T-Mac 8 MPG. Either you played him meaningful minutes, or you simply didn't play him at all. My view is, Rick Adelman and the Houston Rockets totally mishandled the situation.
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